The San Diego Symphony won unanimous approval Tuesday to move forward with a $25 million, 10,000-seat waterfront concert venue on San Diego Bay.

The San Diego Unified Port District board authorized negotiations to work out a 66-year lease for the 3.6 acres the symphony currently occupies each summer on Embarcadero Marina Park South for its outdoor pops concerts.

“I believe you’ve come up with a world-class project, something San Diegans will benefit from for many, many generations,” last year’s port chairman, Dan Malcolm, told symphony officials.

Instead of a stage that must be set up and torn down each summer, the permanent facility would include a 4,800-square-foot stage large enough to house all the symphony musicians and covered by an acoustic bandshell.

Designed by the same London-based team, Soundforms, that worked on the London 2012 Olympics, the shell would be composed of material similar to what covers the nearby San Diego Convention Center Sail Pavilion and the Lindbergh Field’s Terminal 2 arrival plaza.

Symphony bayfront site gets ‘OK’

One of the goals is to minimize sound amplification and any impact on surrounding residents, including those in Coronado.

Tucker Sadler Architects has designed the complex in such a way that the public would be able to walk around the venue and hear the music without having to “perch” on the rocks that line the edge of the bay, as Commissioner Bob Nelson phrased it.

Symphony CEO Martha Gilmer said the facility would represent a “gift to the tidelands and the entire San Diego region.”

“First and foremost, we want to create a venue with superb acoustics that will be stunning ... a postcard for San Diego,” she said. “The location on the bay is a premium and we need to create a premium that matches.”

The complex would include permanent public restrooms and a food service preparation area that could operate year-round. Gilmer said the possibility of operating a year-round restaurant and even a small gift shop will be discussed during port negotiations.

The capacity could range from about 2,700 to as many 10,000 seats. By regrading the site, bleachers would no longer be necessary and the experience would resemble outdoor amphitheaters around the world. Low-water-using landscaping is also proposed.

Commissioner Rafael Castellanos said he hopes the symphony will reach out to residents who can’t afford to attend concerts. Gilmer later said the organization already plans a free concert next summer.

She said a fund-raising drive will commence immediately and offer naming-rights opportunities to major donors. The project, projected to cost between $20 million and $25 million, is currently referred to as the “San Diego Symphony Bayside Performance Center.”

The symphony, which has occupied the desired site on a summer-by-summer basis since 2004, would like to start construction in October so the permanent facility could be in place by June 2017.

But the port staff must determine if it requires a full-blown environmental impact report, finalize a lease agreement and run it past the California Coastal Commission.

If any of those steps add many months to the process, the project would have to be delayed to the summer of 2018 or later, Gilmer said.

The symphony has performed at various locations around San Diego since the 1920s, starting at the Spreckels Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. Several years ago, the Midway Aircraft Carrier Museum proposed including a performing arts facility for the symphony and a park on top of a parking garage next to its Navy Pier location.

The port received $81,275 in rent from the symphony last year. Projections indicate the rent could rise to more than $226,000 in the second year due to more concerts, special events, some offered by other groups, and higher ticket prices.

The symphony currently pays the port $1 per ticket, 5 percent of the gross ticket sales for outside leased events and 5 percent of the gross sales of food, beverages and merchandise.

Photo illustration shows the new stage and acoustical shell planned for the proposed San Diego Symphony’s permanent site for pops concerts and other events at Embarcadero Marina Park South.

San Diego Symphony

Commissioner Ann Moore, joined by other commissioners, agreed that the usual competitive bids for port property would not be needed in the symphony’s case, given its long tradition of annual waterfront use.

She also noted that the port’s long-term integrated planning effort has always envisioned such mixed uses as arts and entertainment on port tidelands.

San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer and arts patron Irwin Jacobs both added their support for the symphony project at the port meeting.

“I think it’s going to be one of the most remarkable places that people visit,” Faulconer said.

Jacobs, who with his wife Joan have contributed more than $100 million to the symphony, said the couple has rarely missed one of the summer concerts.

“It is time to go ahead with a much longer-term plan to make permanent improvements,” he said.